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Wednesday, October 10, 2007

The Mac-Daddy of them all!

Yep, this coming Saturday October 13th is the Ironman World Championships on the fabled Big Island of Hawaii. This is the ironman race that started it all back in 1978 and has spawned the growth of Ironman and long-distance triathlon around the world. The race takes place in Kailua-Kona and is the holy grail for the majority of long-distance triathletes. 1800 competitors get to the event through the qualifying process that takes place throughout the year at 70.3M and Ironman races around the world, the remaining 200 get there through the lottery process, initiated in 1990 to allow the "common-man/woman" to still take part. As you can imagine the qualifying standards are high and only the best of the best ever get to the startline. For example the Eagleman 70.3M race(which is local to us in Maryland) is a Hawaii qualifier and only the winner/top two of each age group are awarded the slots.

Since watching the Ironman World Championships on TV back in the early 1990's, there has always been something nagging at me that it would be something and somewhere cool to do/go. So having started triathlons in 2005, the next logical step was to get on the Ironman train and I hopped on last year at IMFL. Now what? I love the Ironman distance and kinda missed doing one this year. Ideally I would love to get to Kona next October and experience the mystique of the Big Island. I have an outside shot, and with a dedicated training plan and an all out effort at Eagleman 70.3M on June 8th, 2008, I may have a chance. And besides I have quietly told myself that the first time we would go to Kona would be to race at the Ironman.... and it would be shame to miss out on Hawaii, so the motivation is there!

Anyways with all the media surrounding the race this year it has been a great motivational tool for the past 2 weeks as I gear up for the Duathlon World's on Oct 21st and then the final race of the year at the 70.3M WC in Clearwater....which will provide a good stepping stone to the off-season and next years plans.